


Coming Home

by MonPetitTresor



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Military, Brotherly Love, Brotherly feels, Feels, Human Castiel, Human Gabriel, M/M, Missing in Action, Prisoner of War, Return, Sorry Not Sorry, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 13:25:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6521587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonPetitTresor/pseuds/MonPetitTresor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My response to a tumblr prompt: "Lieutenant Sam Winchester has been missing and presumed dead for a year. Until one day, he shows up at his brother’s doorstep with a strange man in tow."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> I don't usually write Military stuff, as it's rather personal to me, but I really felt this prompt and I enjoyed writing it. Here, have some of my feels :)

Sam stood on the front porch and stared at the door in front of him. _Just lift your hand_ , he told himself. _Lift your hand and knock. That’s all you have to do. Just lift your hand and knock. They want to see you. He’ll want to see you._

A hand settled in the small of Sam’s back and forced away the thought’s he’d been having. With just that simple touch the soldier found himself grounded. Calmer. He looked over into a pair of amber eyes and the smiling face of the man standing at his side. A man who had been at his side these past seven months. A man who was the whole reason that Sam was even here. Gabriel Milton smiled up at him and leaned in enough that he could rest his head against the side of Sam’s shoulder, the best that he could reach with their difference in height. “You’ll be fine.” Gabriel murmured to him.

Sam drew in a breath and blew it out carefully. Gabriel was right. He’d be fine. This was going to be fine. Everything he’d done, everything he’d gone through, had been to come back here.

It still took a lot of effort to lift his hand and rap his fist against the door. The sound seemed to echo around him.

There was a moment of quiet in which Sam was so sure that no one was going to be home and he’d been angsting over absolutely nothing this whole time. Then he heard it – the sound of footsteps. Someone was coming.

Sam thought he was as prepared as he was going to be.

He was wrong.

Nothing at all could’ve prepared him for the sight that met him when the door was pulled open. It wasn’t his brother, like he expected, though the person looked to be wearing his brother’s clothes – it was Castiel. Sergeant Castiel Novak, one of the best soldiers in any of the units Sam had ever worked with. He had served under Sam and had saved his life once, and had his life saved by Sam more than once in return. He’d been a great friend, a fantastic soldier, and one of the people Sam had trusted the most. When he and a few others in the squad had been separated, Castiel had helped him, kept them going, kept them together. When Sam had been taken, the one thing he’d held on to was that he knew his men would be protected with Castiel there to step up and take charge.

What he hadn’t expected was to find him _here_ , wearing his brother’s clothes.

The two stared at one another in stunned silence. It was Castiel who broke it, a pained sound coming from his throat. “Samuel?”

Hearing his name in that deep voice, a voice that had always seemed so strange from such a slender body, was enough to snap Sam out of his shock. “Cas?”

The Sergeant pushed away from the door and Sam found himself being wrapped up tight in a hug that threatened to make his ribs crack. Instead of pulling away, as he might’ve done with just about anyone else, Sam closed his arms around Castiel as well and held him close, held him tight. “You’re okay.” Sam breathed out, pressing his face against black hair that had grown so shaggy since the last time he’d seen them. “Thank God, Cas, you’re okay. They told me but I didn’t believe it.”

“Me?” Castiel pulled back and his blue eyes were full of tears. “Samuel. _Sam._ You’re _alive_.”

The two were still holding on to one another when another voice called out form deep inside the house. Sam looked up as he heard Dean’s familiar voice call out “Cas, who’s at the door?”

A second later Dean rounded the corner and Sam got his first glimpse of his brother in two years.

The very first thought that Sam had was that Dean looked damn good. He looked a bit older, more lines around his eyes than had been there before, a heaviness to his step that Sam didn’t remember being there. But he still looked so good. Bright, familiar green eyes, lit with the light of the smile he wore, widened as they caught sight of Sam. The smile wiped off his face and Sam saw him actually stumble, one hand coming out to catch himself on the wall. It looked like a tremor ran down Dean’s body as he stared at the little brother that had been missing and presumed dead for a year now.

“Sammy?”

Dean’s voice was a croak. Like he couldn’t quite form the word, could barely get it out past the lump in his throat.

A smile lit up Sam’s face and the fear he’d been carrying inside washed away at the sight of the brother he’d fought so hard to come home to. “Hey Dean.”

“ _Sammy_.”

Everyone else was forgotten as Dean launched himself forward. The only thing that kept Sam from toppling under the impact of his brother’s hug was the bracing hand that Gabriel kept firmly at Sam’s back just long enough to steady him. For how short he was, he was surprisingly strong. But as soon as he was sure that Sam wasn’t going to fall he let go and stepped back and allowed the two brothers to wrap up in one another so tight. Sam let himself be folded into the arms that had always been a source of comfort to him. Arms that had held him and sheltered him against the world countless times in his life. One of Dean’s arms banded around him and the other hand came up to cup the back of Sam’s head, keeping him in close. “Sammy,” Dean breathed out against him and there was a wobble to the word that tore at Sam’s heart. “You’re alive. Oh, God, you’re alive.”

“I’m here.” Sam murmured back. He gripped at Dean’s jacket tightly and held him just as close.

The hand in his hair tightened and pulled his head back so that Dean could look up at his face. He pulled his other arm from around Sam and lifted that hand to cup it over Sam’s cheek and hold him there like he couldn’t quite believe it was really him. His thumb stroked over Sam’s cheek, over the scar that traced along his cheekbone towards his ear – an ear he had almost no hearing in whatsoever. “It’s really you?”

“Yeah, Dean. It’s really me.” This time it was Sam whose voice was choked. He’d held on for so long, wanting to get here, needing to get to his brother. But now that he was here the control he’d been gripping felt like it was fraying slightly. The lines around Dean’s eyes and the grief in them were enough to cut Sam off at the knees. “Dean, I’m so sorry. God, I’m so sorry. I would’ve gotten here faster if I could’ve, I swear…”

“Shut up.” Dean growled out. Then he yanked Sam back in close once more and held him even tighter. “Just shut up and let me hold on a minute, Sammy. You’re here. You’re _home_.”

For the first time since Sam had gotten free from those that held him, he felt the truth of those words.

He was _home_.


End file.
